In the most commonly practiced approach, turbine blades for gas turbine engines are cast to approximately the final shape. Then portions of the turbine blade, such as the root and the shroud, if any, are shaped to the final desired form by a technique such as grinding. The turbine blade is thereafter processed by depositing protective coatings or by other procedures.
The finished turbine blades are assembled into a turbine disk or wheel, with a “dovetail” form on the root of each turbine blade engaging a respective conformably shaped slot on the turbine disk. The turbine disk is in turn supported on a shaft in the gas turbine engine. The turbine blades must have precisely established positions and angular orientations in the turbine disk. Any mispositioning and misorientation may lead to aerodynamic inefficiency and the introduction of unacceptable vibrations in the turbine disk and the turbine blade as the turbine disk turns during service.
Because it is the root of each turbine blade that engages the slot on the turbine disk, the root must be shaped very precisely. Two techniques have been widely used to hold the turbine blade in an exact location and orientation for the shaping of the root. In one, the airfoil of the turbine blade is cast into a matrix of a metal with a low melting point, which is used to hold the turbine blade with its root precursor positioned for grinding or other shaping. This approach, while operable, requires that the low-melting-point metal be cleaned from the surface of the airfoil after the shaping of the root is completed. Even traces of the metal remaining after careful cleaning of the surface of the airfoil may adversely affect the subsequent application of the coatings. Mechanical fixtures or jigs have been developed to hold the turbine blade. These fixtures avoid the use of the low-melting-point metal, but have not been fully satisfactory because they misposition the root precursor or because they do not hold the turbine blades sufficiently repeatably and securely so that each root is shaped the same.
There is a need for an improved approach to the shaping of the roots of turbine blades and other gas turbine components. The present invention fulfills this need, and further provides related advantages.